Rick Stansbury laid the game plan out for his Western Kentucky team.

Against a Tennessee State squad that can heat up from beyond the arc, Stansbury wanted the Hilltoppers to attack the basket Saturday and get to the free-throw line. WKU accomplished that mission in an 88-74 win at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Toppers (4-3) went 36-of-45 from the foul stripe. WKU’s 45 attempted free throws were its most in a single game since the 2017-18 team went 37-of-48 from the line Feb. 15 in a win at North Texas.

“(Stansbury) talked about how the way we were going to beat them with them shooting a lot of 3s was getting into the paint and getting fouled and then beating them at the free-throw line,” WKU forward Desean Murray said. “I feel like that’s what we did. That was good. Coach put a whole bunch of emphasis on it.”

All those foul shots helped the Hilltoppers overcome a 6-to-14 assist-to-turnover ratio, along with big scoring nights by Tiger guards Kamar McKnight (30 points) and Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey (25).

Murray posted 17 points and eight rebounds for the Tops in their fourth win of the year. Guard/forward Jared Savage (20 points) led WKU in scoring, while guards Taveion Hollingsworth (19) and Josh Anderson (15) also reached double figures.

“They’re averaging (11.2) 3s per game,” Stansbury said. “We held them to five. That’s a huge stat.

“The other stat we had to win tonight (was free throws). They’re a better 3-point shooting team than we are. We’re not going to make 11 3s. We’ve got to win the free-throw war. And we won that.”

The Hilltoppers’ win Saturday marked their 600th all time at Diddle Arena, which opened in 1963. WKU is now 600-169 in the building.

Saturday’s victory came on a night the Toppers honored their All-Century Team. The program selected a 16-member squad before the season captained by Courtney Lee and the late Jim McDaniels to commemorate its 100th year of basketball.

Program legends Johnny Britt, Darel Carrier, Kannard Johnson and Bobby Rascoe were all on hand to be honored at halftime. Lee, who’s in the middle of his NBA season with the New York Knicks, gave fans a video message that was broadcast during the second half.

Family members, friends or teammates represented many of the players and coaches who were either unable to attend or who are deceased.

Saturday marked only the second time in its first seven games that WKU played on its home floor. The Hilltoppers started the season with seven of their first nine contests on the road or neutral courts. They wrap up nonconference play later this month with a stretch of three out of four games at Diddle Arena.

“We love the energy in Diddle,” the sophomore Anderson said. “Anytime we make a big play or something like that, we try to get them (the fans) into the game. I felt like we did a good job with that.”

Stansbury experimented with a new lineup Saturday, shuffling Anderson from point guard to the wing, Hollingsworth from shooting guard to point guard and Savage from the wing to shooting guard.

WKU’s third-year coach played Murray in the post rather than away from the basket. He also gave Tolu Smith minutes at power forward after he’d played mostly as center Charles Bassey’s backup through the first six games.

“As you can watch, still, offensively, it was some broken pieces,” Stansbury said. “But when you play hard, you can overcome some things.”

The Tops led 38-33 at halftime and then opened the second half with a 16-6 run. Murray’s tip-in off a Savage missed 3-pointer with 15:09 left in the game made it a 54-39 WKU lead.

TSU hung around, keeping the margin around 10 for about the next 10 minutes. Then the Tigers made a run and trimmed the deficit to 75-70 with 5:21 left on two Fitzpatrick-Dorsey free throws.

Anderson responded with a pair of buckets to push the Hilltopper lead back to nine. The second of those came on a fast-break dunk off his own steal.

That dunk made it 79-70 with 4:36 left and halted the Tennessee State rally, but he had one more big play left in him.

Anderson got the ball on the left wing with just over a minute left and WKU up 83-72. The 6-foot-6 guard got past a defender and turned into the paint, where the Tigers’ Damarri Moore was standing in front of the rim.

Anderson rose up high over Moore and threw down a right-handed slam over Moore, drawing a foul in the process. Anderson went wild afterward, nearly ripping off his jersey, while Savage restrained him from behind to keep him under control.

“I’ve got to give a shoutout to ‘Monte,” Anderson said of academically ineligible guard Lamonte Bearden.

“He was on the bench and was putting it in my head to play above the rim. When I got the ball and attacked, that was in my head. I went up there.”

Up next

WKU heads back on the road this week for a swing through the Ozarks. The Hilltoppers will meet Missouri State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., and Arkansas at 2:30 Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, Ark.

MSU fell to 3-5 this season with a 101-77 loss Saturday at Oregon State. The Bears beat WKU 85-80 last year in Bowling Green in the teams’ first meeting.

Notes

Stansbury is 46-31 in his third year at WKU and 339-197 overall in his coaching career. … The Hilltoppers lead their all-time series with Tennessee State 9-0. … Bassey hit WKU’s first 3-pointer of the night with 15:20 left in the first half. That stretched the Toppers’ steak of consecutive games with a made 3 to 983. … With two blocks Saturday, Bassey moved into a tie with Lee for the fifth-most blocks by a WKU varsity freshman (15). He passed previous No. 6 Vinny Zollo (16) on that list. … Announced attendance at Diddle Arena was 6,071.{&end}